EUGENE — Between throws during the NCAA championships, Oregon Ducks shot putter Jaida Ross could be seen on a nearby bench with her head down.

As she later explained, it wasn’t in frustration or dejection. The collegiate record-holder led her nearest competitor by nearly a meter. Ross was visualizing her next throw, deep in the psychological waters few athletes in the world can float calmly in.

“I try not to watch other people’s throws,” Ross said, cradling her NCAA championship trophy. “Their technique gets in my head, and I’m just thinking about my technique. I’m a big visualizer, big into psychology, so I visualize every throw.”

Ross’s final throw of the day (64 feet, 2 ½ inches; 19.57 meters) was her best, extending an already sizable lead and securing her first individual NCAA title. Three weeks later, the 22-year-old from Medford is a finalist for the Bowerman Award, honoring the nation’s top collegiate track and field athlete, and is seeking a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

Before locking into 21 days of mental and physical preparation for the biggest meet of her life, Ross celebrated properly after her second-biggest meet: with lemon ice cream from Prince Puckler’s in Eugene, a city she has grown to love.

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Ross grew up a multi-sport athlete, and her middle school basketball coach — Pieter Voskes — happened to be the track and field coach at North Medford High School. Voskes approached her one day at practice and suggested she try out the shot put.

Ross resisted, not wanting to add another sport to her busy schedule. But she was eventually convinced to try out for the high school track and field team, and ended up being a two-time state champion and one-time state runner-up in the shot put for the Black Tornado.

“Turns out my body is made for that more than basketball and soccer, so I moved to the track and field world,” Ross said.

At Oregon, Ross’s rise to a collegiate record 65 feet, 7¾ inches (20.01 meters) was steady: hovering in the 15- and 16-meter range as a freshman and gaining major distance each year. Through it all, she had her playful yet intensely serious superstitions about the equipment she used.

“They (the shots) go right back in the case and I don’t open them up until the next meet,” Ross said with a smile. “I have two lucky ones. I don’t let anyone touch them. They stay in the case. I throw them six times every two weeks, and they stay there. Very safe. They’re my babies.”

Ross faced a new challenge in 2023 when she injured her back in the weight room and had to rehab her way into an Olympic year. And she ended up setting not only the collegiate record when all was said and done, but also became just the seventh woman in American history to surpass 20 meters with her astonishing toss at NCAA qualifiers.

Ross enters the Olympic trials healthy and with the second-best mark of the year among her competitors.

“It was definitely scary because squatting is so important for shot putters,” Ross said of her injury. “I had to go light on squats, I had to do lunges instead. It was really difficult and really discouraging. I’ve never really had to battle an injury before that, so it was my first time practicing resilience.”

In practicing resilience, Ross also practiced mindfulness, further developing the foundation for those moments of serenity in what are now the highest-pressure moments of her athletic career.

Ross’s mother, Amanda Krug, is a mental health professional in Southern Oregon. Ross cited her mom as an inspiration not only in taking care of her own mental health, but in the career she hopes to pursue after she puts her lucky shots away for the final time.

“I’m big in social work,” Ross said. “That’s what I want to go into after college. I just want to help as many people as I can. I think Eugene has a pretty high houseless population, and that’s something I want to help out.”

As she pursues Olympic glory, Ross seems eager to discuss the topic of athlete mental health, too.

“It’s something people sometimes don’t like to talk about,” Ross said. “Eugene is a beautiful city, Hayward is beautiful, but Eugene struggles a lot with things like houselessness and drug use and things like that. That’s where I want to come in and help as much as I can.”

-- Ryan Clarke covers the Oregon Ducks and Big Ten Conference for The Oregonian and co-hosts the Soccer Made in Portland and Ducks Confidential podcasts. He can be reached at rclarke@oregonian.com or @RyanTClarke.

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